Terry Gruggen
President & CEO, Minneapolis

Terry began his career in 1976 at Campbell
Mithun, the Twin Cities largest advertising
agency. As an account management trainee,
he was assigned advertising duties for Litton
Microwave Cooking Products and West Bend Appliances

A year later he joined Chuck Ruhr Advertising to work on the agency’s
flagship account, Perkins ‘Cake and Steak. He was soon made account
group director of the agency’s retail clients, which included companies
like Target, Gabberts, Regis Salons and Brown Photo (now Ritz Cameras).
In 1983, at the ripe old age of 30, he was made Vice President and
Chief Operating Officer and became the agency’s representative on
the 4A’s Board of Governors. In his tenure at Chuck Ruhr Advertising,
he helped the agency grow from 13 employees and $6 million in billings
to 64 employees and $32 million in billings. His awards during that time
included an Effie and 4 Clios.

In 1985, Terry joined Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt as Senior
Vice President, Management Supervisor. The agency, with $2.4 billion
in billings, 4,500 employees and offices in 64 countries, provided
Terry with a much larger stage. He headed up a group that managed
21 different accounts, with a primary focus in retail. They included,
Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Regis Salons, KFC and Pizza Hut.
He was made chairman of Bozell’s national new business committee
and headed up the 10-office account team that worked on The People’s
Republic of China. His awards during his tenure included a Gold Effie
and 2 Lions from The Cannes Film Festival.

Terry left Bozell Worldwide in 1993 and founded Gruggen Buckley.
The focus of the company was to create collateral materials for retail
clients…..something ad agencies were not very good at. Focusing on
the benefits of speed and low cost, he was able to quickly add blue chip
clients to the Gruggen Buckley roster. Within the first 18 months,
clients like AT&T, Target and Valvoline had all come on board.

Two events would change the focus of the company. In 2000,
Gruggen Buckley had custom software written that enabled them
to turn data into computer-automated page layouts for pre-press.
This proprietary software soon received a federal trademark and
is now known as SpeedVersion®.

In 2001, AT&T Wireless asked Gruggen Buckley to review their
$72 million print production budget and recommend cost saving
measures. Terry and his staff were able to cut $17 million dollars
in expenditures from the existing budget with an actual 10% increase
in the volume produced. AT&T Wireless responded by consolidating
their $55 million national print expenditures with Gruggen Buckley.
And so began the Gruggen Buckley’s focus on high volume,
print production management for Fortune 500 companies.

All of that takes us to where Terry is today. As President and CEO,
he has Gruggen Buckley highly focused in a very specialized niche.
And if you want to see just how focused he really is, pick up the phone
and call him. He’s at his desk by 6 a.m. every day